Heretofore, there have been many types of DIP switches available for hand insertion onto a printed circuit board. Because of a need to reduce labor costs, the electronic industry has sought a DIP switch that can be machine inserted on a board with standard available equipment.
Automatic machines for machine inserting DIP integrated circuit modules have been developed and are commercially available but are restricted to handle modules within a given size range. Thus, a DIP switch having the dimensions and configuration within that size range can also be machine inserted on printed circuit boards by the same machines.
One known machine insertable DIP switch includes a slide-type contactor of the leaf-spring type, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,352,964. It is well known that the life and reliability of a leaf-spring type switch is materially less than those switches not using leaf springs such as the ball contactor switch shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,031,345. Moreover, it is not possible in the known machine insertable DIP switches to change the switching mode, such as between a normally open or normally closed type, except by changing parts of the switch.
The problems involved in making a machine insertable DIP switch include the necessity to compactly design the switch with a low profile so that its height, width and length are within the size range of a machine for handling DIP integrated circuit modules and so that the terminals are arranged on the outside of the switch housing for gripping and handling by the insertion equipment. The DIP switch of the present invention can be machine inserted by that automatic insertion equipment in a printed circuit board, thereby eliminating hand insertion methods of saving labor costs.